Rent on the Broadway documentary- Page 2

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 12:20am

I think they put enough Sondheim in, just my opinion . And they showed just a snippet of you know who from the Chicago movie. That is right.......Renee Zellwegar. SIKE!!!! Oh, Catherine, Catherine, Catherine....shake your bon bon.

[musicaltheatreman]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 12:49am

did they show anything from dreagirls??

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 1:01am

watching it now... I am HIGHLY enjoying!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 1:01am

Nope. Nothing from Dreamgirls

[pab]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 1:16am

What do you people want? There is no way that everything could have been covered. If they had added more of this, someone else would just say it was too much of that etc. etc. etc. I for one am happy to at least know that a good Documentary has been done and there some things in it that a lot of people, who think that Broadway began with RENT, can learn.

[Chip1012]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 1:16am

The Civil War is the worst theatrical experience I've ever had. And it did nothing for the art form, so why would it be included??

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 1:18am

never seen the show, but the concept album is GORGEOUS.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 2:32am

So yeah, I cried when they played Jonathan singing "One Song Glory" and then segwayed into Adam singing it on stage with full sets and costume. Ugh... just cried like a baby.

[MyNameInLights]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 2:34am

I'm very nervous to watch it now.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 2:59am

LOTS of Wicked.. Thankfully no Daphne Rubin-Vega.

[Princess MimiChica]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 8:37am

"Thankfully no Daphne Rubin-Vega"

Why in the world are you THANKFUL for that?? that comment seemed kind of uncalled for.

But WOW, it was seriosuly so emotional to see and HEAR Jonathan on tv. The man had such a great personality and was so alive...I have a cassette of Jon singing a few early versions of RENT songs, but, on tv it sounded a lot clearer and it just gave me goosebumps. No, Jonathan wasn't the best singer, but you could fee land hear how much passion he put into his writing. I REALLY need to buy the DVD now so I can see more of that segment!!

I'm glad they didn't spend an hour just talking about Phantom and Le Miz. I think because the series was about the AMERICAN musical, and those shows are British, they just didn't fee lthe need to talk about them that much?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 8:38am

you only think it's uncalled for because I don't worship lil miss "I'm 40 but claiming to be 27 while I screech"

[sndtrklvr]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 8:40am

I love the series, but feel they should have done more in finding archival footage. For example, I have seen old 8mm home movies of Barbra in Funny Girl on stage, why not use that instead of footage from the movie? The same with Damn Yankees. It seemed at some points they cut the documentary to fit what footage they had. For example, no archival of Channing in Dolly except for an anniversary show (Tony's perhaps) yet they devote screen time to Mary Martin in Viet Nam, seemingly because they had film of it.

Posted: 10/22/04 at 8:56am

Not to sound totally and completely out of it... but what documentary is this??

[actorgaedu]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 9:04am

This program was trying to show the evolution of the Broadway Musical. The "Wicked" sequence was to show how big budgeted musicals have become and the draw of them due to the story and the spectacle. Even though "Avenue Q" won the Tony, it is NOT a spectacle show, nor a family type show that everyone can see and appreciate. I really enjoyed this whole program and can't wait to buy the DVD. It saddens me that everyone on here talks about the present day stuff, but nobody has posted an appreciation of the roots of the broadway musical and the way this program covered the real history of it. I was incredibly pleased with the whole package and hope that more people enjoying today's broadway watched it to gain an appreciation of what has happened to broadway and what has changed over the years. It also makes me sad that during the 40s and 50s close to 70 or 80 musicals were opening in one season. I don't think we have had that many musicals open in the last 15 years on broadway. How sad money and cost can make something diminish so much. I miss the old broadway too!

[chaschap]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 11:00am

I worked with Jonathan at Adelphi in the early 80s and Jonathan was a fine singer and a great actor. Filled with passion.

I think even his cut on TICK TICK BOOM is inspiring.

[Al Dente]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 11:09am

I'm surprised no one has mentioned how Gawd awful Menzel sounded on the documentary. This is the voice you all worship and want the other girls to emulate? And don't tell me she was nervous a' la the Tony's, this was B-roll. I agree that it was a glaring omission to not include Dreamgirls but I figure they thought they had done "enough" on Bennett.

[mint0621]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 11:24am

I loved the documentary, esp. about the earlier musicals, which I learned a lot. Julie Andrews at age 19, as the first My Fair Lady! Amazing. Too bad she didn't make the movie, Audrey Hepburn singing My Fair Lady with a voiceover was unfortunate.

I didn't see Taye Diggs, or Idina in the footage in the documentary, but the segueway from Jonathan's singing to Adam's singing was really touching. May Rent live long and prosper!

[JaiRoAngel]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 11:45am

I did really enjoy the Rent segment. I just thought maybe they would mention the cast, but they didn't.
I was really dissappointed that there wasn't more on Les Miz.
But oh my, I loved the Chicago segment. It was the highlight for me.

[timote316]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 12:24pm

A friend of mine reminded me about the show... about midnight last night. I MISSED IT!

And curse me being hard to buy for, my mother has forbidden me from buying it on DVD, saying she is going to buy it for me for Christmas. Now I have to wait 2 months! lol (that and the new Star Wars DVDs... ) Anybody know if they are rerunning it at any point?

o, btw Emcee, I got Civilian and Model Prisoner. They are great! Although, I can't help but think that I'm listening to Roger's CDs... lol. Guess Adam as Roger is ingrained in my mind lol

[Chloe]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 12:58pm

Actorgaedu, quite a bit of very interesting responses to the earlier shows was posted on the Off Topic Board, so you might want to check there. And you're right that the documentary was built around what footage was available - that's really all they can do. Even with the talking heads material they can only show the people they were able to get, talking about whatever it is they want to talk about. I doubt if bootlegged footage was an option.

[SeeIreallycouldn'tSING!!]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 2:58pm

I LOVED the chorus line part. I love the archive footage from it, I'd love to get my hands on a copy of the orignal show. I've seen the low quality version thats in the Lincoln Center Archives though. Anyway I thought that the first hour of the seris was really interesting and it provided a great foundation for somone who really didn;t know much about the early history of broadway. I also really liked the stuff of Rogers and Hammerstien, I never new Edelvise (Sp?) was his last song... seems so fitting. I thought Sondhiem was REALLY annoying. I never knew how much I dispised Sweeny Todd till last night.
I'm surprised that their wasn't more on 9/11, but i think thats alright, i loved the postive spin they put on it. THe stuff on Rent, I thought was wonderful, showing Johathon Larson in the cafe and him singing the songs, was sooooo great. Hated the wicked stuff. But the best of all was CHorus line!!

[SeeIreallycouldn'tSING!!]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 3:09pm

Another thing... Why so much on the lion king! i mean its great the way they restored the theater (i'd love to see pics of it before they fixed it, if anyone knows where to get those) but why is the show such a big deal. I personally dont like the show AT ALL. I think Beauty and the Beast was a much bigger deal, and Better show, so why did they make such a big deal out of sucky lion king?

[Bal]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 3:19pm

What bothered me about Ms. Menzel is that once again, she proves that she's inconsistant with her talent. She needs voice lessons or *something*, because I winced when she started to sing "It's MEEEEEEEEEEEE..." in the rehearsal footage and way flatter than a very flat pancake, and then the segue to Opening Night jumped up to where the note should be. It's disgraceful. She was sharp on one of the television broadcasts, sharp when I saw her live, and we've all seen the Tony Awards. It bothers me that she's gotten so far, while other people who could do the work were originally overlooked for the part.

Anyways.

I really enjoyed learning about the 'Fosse Style', I thought that was really neat. And I really liked watching the OBC cast of A Chorus Line!

[jezzebelle]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 4:33pm

I adore Cabaret and love Joel Grey, but I'm a bit terrified of clips of him as the Emcee. I don't know why exactly, maybe it is his facial expressions, but he scares the crap out of me.


I wanted to see a bit more Hairspray stuff, though I loved seeing clips from ACL and Cabaret.